Dnasaurs spotted again walking the planks in Texas

John T. Harvey teaches economics at Texas Christian University, mildly characterized as a "traditional" school. And he's terrified. Terrified of the distinctly un-Christian Texas Republican Party's official party orthodoxy for 2012.

The Terrifying Texas GOP Platform

I am so distressed by the 2012 platform released by the Texas Republican Party that I find it impossible not to comment. it is difficult to believe that what the Republicans put together during their convention in Fort Worth was even written in the 21st century.

The document (available here) has already made headlines with the portion that opposes the “teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills” and “critical thinking skills.” Although a partial retraction followed, this was in terms of the wording, not the general meaning. It appears that their fear is that these “focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

This begs the question, who is really aiming to force their beliefs on our children, Texas schools or Texas Republicans?

The economic policies recommended by the document are equally impractical and ill-considered. In addition, they believe that the Federal Reserve system should be abolished and that the US should return to the gold standard.

This is not to say that there are not portions of the Texas Republican Party Platform that are perfectly reasonable. There are.

But, by and large, it reads as if it were written in another age and in ignorance of the social, economic, and scientific evidence of the past half century. Let there be no mistake about it: the Texas Republican Party Platform is terrifying.

Were its recommendations implemented, the US would resemble a third-world country with a cheap, uneducated workforce and a massive gap between rich and poor. Unemployment would be rampant, growth stagnant, and answers few and far between thanks to the systematic repression of higher order and critical thinking.

Texas GOP’s 2012 Platform Opposes Teaching Of ‘Critical Thinking Skills’

Here are some other notable planks for the RPT’s 2012 platform:

On the Patriot Act:

We urge review and revision of those portions of the USA Patriot Act, and related executive and military orders and directives that erode constitutional rights and essential liberties of citizens. Emergency War Powers and Martial Law Declarations - We strongly urge Congress to repeal the War Powers Act and end our declared state of emergency. Any Declaration of Martial law should be approved by Congress.

On “Livestock and Pet Locations”:

We oppose a mandatory animal identification system.

On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA):

We oppose this act through which the federal government would coerce religious business owners and employees to violate their own beliefs and principles by affirming what they consider to be sinful and sexually immoral behavior.

On Campaign Contributions:

We support full disclosure of the amounts and sources of any campaign contributions to political candidates, whether contributed by individuals, political action committees, or other entities.

On the “Voter Rights Act” [sic]:

We urge that the Voter Rights Act of 1965 codified and updated in 1973 be repealed and not reauthorized.

On Homosexuality:

We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle, in public policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values.

On the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child:

We unequivocally oppose the United States Senate’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Republican Party of Texas’ recently adopted 2012 platform contains a plank that opposes the teaching of “critical thinking skills” in schools. Contacted by TPM on Thursday, Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Communications Director Chris Elam said the “critical thinking skills” language made it into the platform by mistake.

Mistake my Tex-ass. See more on the Dinosaurs of Texas

Texas Bored of Education decision too complex to result from chance

Dinosaurs in Texas: But Wait, There's More!

Dinosaurs at it again in Texas

Hattip to that Son of a Guambat

Integration, of course, is a two way street

The world is getting smaller and the nation-state is slowly becoming a bit of an anachronism.

"Separate but equal" was only struck down as a legally sanctioned social form of ethnic balkanization in the US in the 1950's. Guambat grew up with the idea that perhaps the world might some how integrate, like the Star Trek crew, which had a decidedly Anglo-Saxon dominant trait.

It soon became obvious that a total blend of peoples rendered a mud-like, culture-less social norm that soon lost its appeal. So multi-culturism was born as an alternative.

It's an idea that is even more utopian, but still, to Guambat, offers the possibility, over time, of keeping remnants and strains of unique culture, moving at warp speed through the fabric of society.

For it to work, though, both the newly immigrated and the established incumbents must find some way of adapting their own histories to the new reality.

It ain't easy, and it seems to go against human nature, to some extent, even if fed by genuine and enthusiastic human zeal. It is a process that can only ebb and flow, since the social topography is not the same everywhere.

Germany is currently, it seems, feeling a need to ebb.

German multiculturalism 'utterly failed': Merkel

Angela Merkel said Saturday that the concept that different cultures can live happily side by side does not work.

She stressed that immigrants need to do more to integrate, including learning to speak German.
Immigration issues have become a hot topic, and a recent survey by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation think-tank indicated more than 30 per cent of Germans believe the country is "overrun by foreigners."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/16/germany-merkel-immigration-multiculturalism.html#ixzz12bsT827U

Merkel says German multicultural society has failed

Mrs Merkel told a gathering of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party on Saturday that at "the beginning of the 60s our country called the foreign workers to come to Germany and now they live in our country."

She added: "We kidded ourselves a while, we said: 'They won't stay, sometime they will be gone', but this isn't reality."

"And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other... has failed, utterly failed."

In her speech in Potsdam, however, the chancellor made clear that immigrants were welcome in Germany.

Mrs Merkel said: "We should not be a country either which gives the impression to the outside world that those who don't speak German immediately or who were not raised speaking German are not welcome here."

Earlier this month the chancellor held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two leaders pledged to do more to improve the often poor integration record of Germany's estimated 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.

The debate first heated up in August when Thilo Sarrazin, a senior official at Germany's central bank, said that "no immigrant group other than Muslims is so strongly connected with claims on the welfare state and crime". Mr Sarrazin has since resigned.

Such recent strong anti-immigration feelings from mainstream politicians come amid an anger in Germany about high unemployment, even if the economy is growing faster than those of its rivals, our correspondent says.

He adds that there also seems to be a new strident tone in the country, perhaps leading to less reticence about no-go-areas of the past.

Guambat sees the signs of economic distress in actions such as these. And, he must say, this disturbs him.

When times are good and there is plenty to go round, the social problems of human liquidity don't seem so paramount.

Sort of like the economic problems associated with financial liquidity.

Wall Street is Recession-Proof

The trillion-dollar taxpayer bail-out of Wall Street has worked a treat.

For Wall Street.

For deals like this, Guambat is prepared to dine on moral hazard morning, noon and night.

Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion

Pay on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms, a 4% increase. Wall Street revenue is expected to rise 3%.

"Until focus of these institutions changes from revenue generation to long-term shareholder value, we will see these outrageous pay packages and compensation levels," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. Since Wall Street firms pay out up to half of their revenue in compensation, cutting back on that large cost can meaningfully increase profits left for shareholders.

Where revenue falls short, analysts and experts expect that Wall Street will lay off employees in order to keep bonus pools high.

Such nonbank firms like Blackstone Group LP, Och-Ziff Management Group LLC and Fortress Investment Group LLC aren't as scrutinized in Washington. All three firms' revenue and compensation are projected to increase.

Watts going on in Europe?

With 10 days of rioting in France, the following account of its Dutch neighbour provides pithy perspective:

The world changed for Tess Jungblut the day a Muslim extremist murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh on an Amsterdam street not far from her home. "I got so frightened," she says. "When I saw a Muslim-looking man waiting for the bus, I thought, 'He's got a bomb."'

September 11 provoked the entry into politics of Pim Fortuyn, the populist who overturned the restraint of Dutch politics with his wild rhetoric: Islam was a "backward" religion; the Netherlands should be closed to immigrants because it was "full". September 11 also fuelled the rage of Fortuyn's great admirer, Theo van Gogh.

It was 8.30am on November 2 last year and van Gogh had just dropped his 13-year-old boy, Lieuwe, at school. As he rode home, a young bearded man approached, drew a gun and shot him several times. Van Gogh reportedly begged for mercy, asking: "Can't we talk about this?"

But Mohammed Bouyeri, though he had grown up in the Netherlands in a Moroccan family, had no interest in Dutch-style debate. He slit van Gogh's throat from ear to ear, later telling a court that his religion commanded him to cut off the head of anyone who insulted Allah or his prophet. Van Gogh's insult, to Bouyeri, was to make a short film about abuse of women in the name of Allah. Submission, which contained verses of the Koran written on naked female bodies, was written by Ayan Hirsi Ali, a former refugee from Somalia and an MP. Hirsi Ali, who fled to the Netherlands to escape a forced marriage, carries her own anger against her old religion. Her meeting with van Gogh was bound to be explosive.

Van Gogh had been a self-appointed public provocateur for years. It was his art form. In the 1990s he had tried to bait Jews. More recently, as a shock columnist for a local paper, he had taunted Muslims, whom he called "goat-f---ers", for their supposed intolerance to women and homosexuals. Childish and sometimes nasty, his raves had a purpose: to shake the Dutch out of what he saw as their politically correct complacency about Islam. In death, van Gogh would get what he wanted.

The challenge Mrs Jungblut faced is now Europe's challenge. The continent has woken up at the start of the 21st century, and especially after September 11, to find 15 million Muslims in its midst. Many are poor and unemployed, many seem not to be integrating even in the third generations, and a tiny few are being drawn to terrorism.

In the Netherlands the population of 16 million includes a million Muslims. While the migrants began arriving at least 40 years ago, mainly from Turkey and Morocco, most Dutch people will tell you that no one talked about it until the last five years. Now it can seem as if they talk about little else.

"We are seeing something completely unique in European history and in the history of Islam," says a Dutch historian, Paul Scheffer. "It is the first time Muslims are living as large minorities in secular, liberal states. It is an open question whether it will be successful or not."

The Assadaaka centre in Zeeburg opened a crisis hour every day for a month in which Muslims and non-Muslims alike could come in and express their fears or rage: "Whatever they said, we just listened," its director, Ahmed El-Mesri, said.

In the days after the murder, the Government hardened its language. The Deputy Prime Minister, Gerrit Zalm, declared "war" on Islamic extremism. The Immigration and Integration Minister, Rita Verdonk, accused Muslims of being unable to tolerate criticism and said more recently that the time "of cosy tea-drinking" with Muslim groups was over. She cancelled a meeting with Muslim leaders who, she said, refused to shake her hand because she was a woman.

The Government didn't just toughen its language. It continued to harden its asylum seeker policy. Having had one of the world's most open policies in the 1990s, since changes in early 2004 the Netherlands is deporting 26,000 asylum seekers.

The Government now makes all immigrants pass a naturalisation test, including proficiency in basic Dutch. Mr Scheffer says the word multiculturalism - which the Government sees as a synonym for the old naive, open-door policy - has virtually been abandoned.

Not all Muslims oppose all these changes. Haci Karacaen is director of Milli Gorus, an organisation of 45 progressive Turkish mosques. He welcomes new restrictions on arranged marriages with a partner from the home country - still the main form of marriage for 75 per cent of Dutch Turks and Moroccans - because he thinks young people must find ways to integrate.

Mr Karacaen thinks that to build a Dutch Islam, mainstream society and Muslims have to change. He cites recent government research showing 25 per cent of employers say they would not hire a Muslim employee: if that is so, he asks, how will Muslims ever integrate?

"I think that Dutch people have to accept that Islam is here and part of the Netherlands now," he says. "But Muslims … have to find new ways to deal with homosexuality, sex and gender equality … And I don't believe that as a well-thinking Muslim you can walk around in a burqa. It doesn't fit in this society."

In Amsterdam on Wednesday, the Dutch commemorated van Gogh's murder with a day of services and debates. Mr Cohen, who was named one of Time magazine's heroes of 2005 for his determination to hold Amsterdam together, spoke at a service for van Gogh at the site where he was killed. Quoting Roosevelt, he said: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

When religion is a crime

"ABOUT 320 people from three villages in the Wain-Erap area in Nawaeb District [ Papua New Guinea] have been charged by police for allegedly practising sorcery and cargo cult. About 300 people, all aged between 20 and 70, were arrested at Kasin and Sadau. All were taken to Boana Station where they were charged.

"The Kasin group was led by two women - Malamba Kifea and Patsepa Bangere - who treat menses from women as a “sacred water” to enable them “to see invisible things”. “We read the Bible and in the book of Leviticus, we found strange teachings about women and their monthly period,” Mrs Kifea told The National. “We were not sure and did not consult our pastor but kept the secret to ourselves after having revelations and seeing cargo and money being given to us. “We then opened up the cult to everyone and that was when all the good things vanished.”
She said the cult provided them an opportunity to improve their livelihood.

"In Sadau, two elderly men, Eribu Koponk and Nalaun Kuriong, claimed that using skeletons, they could predict the future and bring prosperity. Mr Kuriong, who appeared to head the group, said the practice was part of his cultural heritage. “We use the skull to give blessings,” he said. “We can invoke blessings for protection, hunting, luck and to increase wealth,” he said. They used three skulls dug up from their ancestors’ graves to summon “supernatural powers”.

"Nawaeb district community development officer Livingston Motoring said cult beliefs were a development issue.
He said life in the villages was harsh as the people lacked basic services and infrastructure such as roads. “They resort to sorcery in the belief that it will help alleviate their hardship,” he said."

http://www.thenational.com.pg/1103/nation1.htm

Another clash of civilisations

Two stories in the Sun-Herald today make me want to chunder Down Under.

Story #1: There is a dance troupe from Australia touring America, called Thunder From Down Under. Male dancers, evidently. The show's spokesperson, Penny Levin, describes the show as "tasteful adult entertainment, tailored for various audiences". She says, "We're not a bunch of heathens" and "No one is being forced to buy a ticket or see the show".

Nevertheless, Christian religious leaders in North Dakota have forced a cancellation of their show and a breach of their contract to lease a local venue. The Mayor and two Councilors from Jamestown voted to unilaterally terminate the show's contract to appear at the Jamestown Civic Center after the Jamestown Ministerial Association petitioned the Promotions Committee to stop what they described as "a strip show". One of the nay-saying Councilors said, "I talked to advertisers [who] made it clear that this was going to cost us more than if we cancel the contract."

Story #2: "An American evangelist who preaches how to get rich and whose church has its own MasterCard will pack out Sydney SuperDome for three nights next month.". He is expected to "to rival Hillsong's annual evangelical mas meeting". "Mr Jakes, who is the chief executive and bishop of The Potter's House church in Dallas, was named by Time magazine this year as one of the 25 most influential evangelists in the US and has been called the next Billy Graham."

"Mr Jakes, who is being brought to Sydney by the Christian city Church at Oxford Falls, says Jesus must have been rich to support his disciples.... Christian City Church head Pastor Paul Pringle said Mr Jakes believed in giving the poor financial plans to lift themselves out of poverty, 'rather than a model of Christianity where you just be poor all your life and accept your lot'." Reserved seating is $50, entry is free. "He's made a point of encouraging poor people into his church and he's made a point of helping them, but they're pressured to tithe. His church has a lot of money and he lives in a million-dollar mansion."

There goes my keyboard

"A Turkish court has fined 20 people for using the letters Q and W on placards at a Kurdish new year celebration, under a law that bans use of characters not in the Turkish alphabet, rights campaigners said.... The 1928 Law on the Adoption and Application of Turkish Letters changed the Turkish alphabet from the Arabic script to a modified Latin script and required all signs, advertising, newspapers and official documents to only use Turkish letters."
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/10/25/turk.letters.reut/index.html

Spotted at http://blogs.salon.com/0001561/2005/10/25.html#a8414

Keep It Sharia Soldier

The Kiss. How many times have you seen the same old photo story: soldier/sailor going off to/coming home from duty, getting a departing/returning kiss from his wife/girlfriend? It's almost a cliche in Western press.

But Western values, by definition, apply in Western society. Great swaths of the world have different values, different cultural norms, different beliefs. We Westerners are shocked when we come face to face with some of these differences. No less are non-Westerners shocked when they come face to face with our differences.

So, I'm of two minds about this one. Aceh is an ancient province on the northern tip of Sumatra, an island in Indonesia. It was historically an independent islamic sultanship, but Indonesia has laid claim to it from the time of its independence emergence in the late 1940's. It has valuable oil and gas resources. The Aceh independence movement and the Indonesian government have been at war for years. The result has been that the outside world has basically been kept out of the region for decades, and it has remained more traditional than other places that have had greater absorption in "modern times".

The place may sound familiar. It was the place where the Great Tsunami and Earthquake hit first and hardest, temporarily pulling the sheets back from the bed of unrest and life in the formerly locked-down area.

Having made this short story long, what happened this last week was the Indonesian army was pulling back some of its forces. It was a publicity event for the army and a lot of press was present. A soldier and his girlfriend were being separated. They grabbed a quick kiss. The press grabbed a quick photo shoot. The local muslim hardliners went balistic. They want the soldier flogged. The traditional consequence for the girl is stoning.

It is not for me to tell them that their ways are wrong for them; you know: "when in Rome...." But they are certainly wrong for me. And it is the great conflagration that arises from these little incidents that will, I'm afraid, characterise the times ahead as the shrinking new world embraces more and more of the traditional, reclusive one. Cool heads on both sides will be required. We can either live through these times or kill through them.

Read about it: http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20050928.B07&irec=6
and http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,16747414%255E401,00.html

For a similar observation: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/blind-faith-is-the-new-power-base/2005/09/28/1127804546995.html